DOÑA ANA COUNTY COMMISSION

APRIL 12, 2005

 Commissioners Butler, Curry, Evans, McCamley, and Saldaña-Caviness were present.

 Two presentations started the meeting, one by Handprints Inc. and the other by Karen Janes, Director of the Magistrate Court Division, Administrative Office of the Courts.

 Handprints is a locally funded non-profit organization working to improve the lives of challenged individuals in Doña Ana County.  More information can be found by emailing handprintsnm@yahoo.com.

 Karen Janes' topic was a proposed misdemeanor compliance program for Doña Ana County.  The program would be operated by existing county personnel and funded by fees imposed by judges on offenders.  Initially DWI offenders would be placed in the program and later domestic violence offenders could be added.

 Two items were pulled from a consent agenda of 23 items for separate consideration.  The first involved the proposed sale of a county-owned residential lot.  After hearing input from neighborhood representatives it was decided to create a community park on the lot.

 The second item involved county funding for clean-up of a Superfund Site at Griggs and Walnut.  Despite the fact that neither the city nor county produced the contamination they have responsibility for clean-up because of ownership.  They are working with the EPA to remediate the problem.

 Several other items on the consent agenda were singled out for discussion including acceptance of funds secured by Senators Domenici and Papen for local projects and approval to apply for EPA grants for air quality management activities and for deploying an Environmental Information System.  Following these discussions the consent agenda was passed unanimously.

 Other business included approval of two resolutions:

 Support of the Federal Program Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) - Since the county includes a good bit of federal land for which it collects no taxes it is asking the feds to continue full funding for PILT.

 Opposing the 'Strengthening America's Communities Initiative' - This initiative is part of a federal effort to eliminate Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs).

 Commissioners went into closed session for discussion of two topics, but ended up not discussing the second which was the recently approved agreement with the Jemez Pueblo regarding the proposed new casino.  That discussion may occur at the next meeting.

Charlie Welch

Common Cause